A compressor stall occurred in flight, at approximately 600 feet and half a mile from destination. This was indicated by a loud bang, yaw, and a sudden decrease in altitude. The engine recovered momentarily, but another stall occurred, with accompanying loud bang, yaw, and another sudden drop in altitude. The pilot lowered the collective to enter autorotation and started a left-hand turn into wind. On ground contact, the helicopter slid and bounced for 45 metres, coming to rest on its right-hand side in a ditch. The pilot closed the fuel shutoff valve, rolled the throttle to ground idle, but in his confusion, instead of closing the throttle to shutoff he reopened it to flight idle. On realising this, he quickly shut the engine off, leaving the master switch on. A farm worker opened the pilot's door and helped the pilot out. The helicopter had smoke coming from around the rotor head. The fire extinguisher was used but the helicopter was quickly engulfed in flames. The engine and airframe had logged less than 300 hours from new. The engine had a history of problems, requiring removal from the airframe on at least three occasions. It had also experienced N1 lock up, starting problems, and compressor stalling. Before the accident, the pilot had written to the CEO of MD Helicopters expressing his concerns after feeling frustrated with the responses that he had received from MD and RR. Removal and strip of the fire damaged engine revealed no pre-existing defects that could have contributed to the accident.